And So They Found Out
by Ally Rae J
Summary: The story about how James Potter, Sirius Black, and Peter Pettigrew found about about Remus Lupin's secret.Set in the Marauders time of course.


Chapter 1: What's Going On?

Remus Lupin awoke in his bed in a sunny blue Saturday in October. He looked around the room to find all of the other four beds empty and unmade. He groaned and rolled over, trying to forget the events of the night before. He stretched out him right arm and observed the new bite marks on his forearms. _Great_, he thought, _I get to wear long sleeves again._ He rubbed his head and looked out the window, staring at the clouds. _Ah yes, a moment's peace is lovely_.

Of course, this peace didn't last long, mainly because James Potter had crept into the room. He watched Remus stare out the window and made sure the peaceful boy was good and relaxed before he made his move.

"GOOOOOD MORNING REMUS! WELCOME HOME!" he screamed right in his ear. Remus jumped out of bed, startled. When he first saw James standing across from him laughing he was angry that he had been disturbed. But Remus was a forgiving person, and quickly rubbed off the anger to just annoyance. He rubbed his forehead with his index finger and thumb for a moment before responding to the fright.

"Now James, that's not a very nice way to treat a friend. Especially after I have had such a long night."

"Oh yes, of course, I forgot. What was it? Your mum's ill again," he said sarcastically, letting Remus know that he didn't buy that particular excuse at all.

"Yes, actually," snapped Remus as he laid back down on his bed. It wasn't even a moment before the head of Sirius Black was peeping around the door.

"James, are you tormenting Remus without me again?" He said with a bit of a pout before entering the room. Following closely behind Sirius was a small Peter Pettigrew, excited as always to be included. Sirius laid down on his bed across the room and put the pillow over his head. "What did I miss?" he said, his voice a bit muffled. 

"Well, Sirius, Remus here went off again last night to see his ill mum," said James coolly, still in a tone to let Remus know he knew that it was bullshit.

"Good God, man, isn't she dead yet!?" shouted Sirius from underneath the pillow. Peter laughed loudly at the joke, as did James. Remus, however, just rolled over in his bed, hiding his chuckles underneath the pillow. 

Sirius hopped up out of bed, walked over to Remus, and grabbed his arm.

"Come on sleepyhead, it's time to get up!" he said playfully as he pulled Remus' arm until Remus fell to the ground. Remus got his arm out of Sirius' grasp and stood up rubbing his forearm. Sirius had just managed to grab the new bite marks.

"Bloody Hell, mate, what happened to your arm!?" James exclaimed as he grabbed his arm to take a look for himself. Remus snatched back his arm and pulled his sleeve down over it. 

"It's nothing"

"Nothing? Mate, a bite from a flobberworm is nothing. That looked like a bloody wolf went at your arm"

"A wolf! Oh no! Our Remus has been bitten by a werewolf, James! We must take him to the hospital immediately!!" joked Sirius. James laughed, and of course Peter's laugh followed it. Remus, however, was not at all amused.

"Shut up! It's nothing. Last night when I went to see mum my Aunt Missy was there with her dog. I told ya that dog was never fond of me at all, and he just went at me." he glared at James and Sirius, completely ignoring Peter as he always did. James and Sirius looked at each other, sharing the same worry for their friend. Remus walked over to his trunk and began changing into his day clothes. His face still filled with an annoyed expression.

"Come on now, Remus. It's Saturday! We've got a trip to Hogsmeade today. You know you love trips to Hogsmeade," said Sirius, a bit excitedly. Remus groaned and flopped back down onto his bed. He had forgotten about that. He was getting tired of the full moons occurring before visits to Hogsmeade.

"I don't know, you guys. . . I'm really tired today. You all go on without me."

"Without you? Come on Remus! I promise you it will be loads of fu-" started James, but Sirius put his hand on James' chest to stop him. He looked over at James, clearly saying without speaking that he should leave Remus alone.

"Alright mate. Won't be as much without ya, but oh well," said James coolly as he shrugged and walked out the room. Peter followed him. Sirius walked over to Remus and kneed him in the legs.

"Sleep up mate" he said before exiting the room. Remus sighed, glad to have some peace again. 

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James and Sirius danced through Hogsmeade, causing a load of ruckus in the small village. They were followed by Peter who was just laughing and making poor attempts to imitate the two cooler boys. Eventually, as they got to the edge of the village, they stopped and continued to laugh as the fell to the ground. They did silly things of this sort every time they went off to visit Hogsmeade. The villagers there either loved them or despised them. More despised them than loved them. That was the way they liked it, truly. If people despised them, then they wouldn't bother them. And these boys did not like to be bothered.

As they calmed down James looked over at the "Shrieking Shack" just over the hill. Ever since they arrived at Hogwarts, the run down house had gained a reputation as being one of the most haunted places in the country. The villager told others that once a month they heard shrieks and howls and all sorts of other nasty noises erupting from the shack. The more James had heard about this, the more he wanted to go inside. Strangely, Remus had never let him before. He had always said that they broke enough rules as it was, that they should leave one rule standing, as silly as it may have been. James thought for a moment. Remus wasn't here to stop him today. A grin spread across his face as he jumped to his feet and started walking towards the shack.

"Oi, James what are you doin'?" called Sirius as he caught up with him, Peter trailing behind.

"Sirius my friend, today we are going to explore the wonder that is The Shrieking Shack, and Remus isn't going to be here to stop us today!"

"Alright now, that's what I want to hear!" said Sirius, just as excited at the prospect as James was. He had wanted to go inside and explore, too. But when Remus was around he acted cool and collected on the matter, not wanting to appear immature or possibly get chastised. 

They approached the shack, and James stopped the other two and led them off into the woods.

"What's this all about then, James?" asked a curious Sirius.

"Well, it is forbidden property. We can't just walk on in, now, can we?" he replied as he dug through his satchel and whipped out his invisibility cloak.

"Good thinking," he replied as he slipped part of the invisibility cloak over his head.

The three boys continued to the Shack, making sure they didn't run into anyone they didn't mean to invisibly run into. Finally they made it to the door.

"Alohamo-"

"Wait!" interrupted Sirius. "They might have the door jinxed for things like that," he stopped and looked around a moment before he spied a hole on the adjacent wall. "Over there! Peter! you hold up the cloak against the wall, while James and I crawl through. then you follow." Peter did as he was told, and with a bunch of nudging and poking they were inside.

Much to James and Sirius' disappointment, there was really nothing there. No spooks or ghouls flying about wreaking havoc. In fact, there were no signs of ghouls or spooks at all. Just an old shack.

"Talk about one of your all time disappointments. It's just a bloody shack. I dunno why we believed those villagers. Most of 'em are senile anyway," said James as he started to walk back to the hole. 

"Hold on James, c'mere" said Sirius, who was staring at the wall.

"Yes Sirius, that's what we call a waaalllll. If you have four of them you can make a rooooom" said James sarcastically as he walked over to inspect. His expression went from joking to curious as he stared at the wall too. Long deep claw marks covered the walls of the shack. A lot of them seemed to be fresh, too. They continued looking at all the mysterious marks around the room. They began not only finding claw marks, but bite marks and blood spatters. Peter was frightened and edged over to the hole so that if something came out he could make a quick exit. James and Sirius were still wandering about the room inspecting the marks. 

"What the fuck is this all about!?" called James from one corner. He sounded angry. Sirius walked over to him. 

"What's the matter James?" James turned around and was holding a dirty bloody ripped up Gryffindor tie.

"So?" 

"So!? It's Remus'!"

"Now James, calm down. How in the world do you know that?"

"Because he's the only fucking loser who stitches his bloody initials on the back of his ties!" screamed James as he turned around the tie and exposed the neatly stitched initials "R.J.L."

Chapter Two: Confronting Remus

Remus had been soundly sleeping for about 2 hours now on top of the covers. He had went down to the hospital wing to pick up some bandages for his wounds and got himself a bite to eat in the Great Hall before falling on his bed and going back to sleep. At this moment, he was a very happy Remus.

But then an angry James burst in the room, followed by Sirius who was trying to calm him down and talk him out of it and Peter who was just mindlessly following behind.

"James, please don't go in there and-"

"REMUS!"

"-yell..."

Remus shot right up in his bed. He was a bit on the jumpy side today. He yawned and stretched before addressing his friends.

"You know, James, that's the second time you have woken me up by yelling. You really should start working on your etiquette."

"Blah blah blah don't you lecture me buddy! First you explain this!" he threw down the tie onto Remus' bed. Remus stared at it.

"Its a tie."

"Yeah! _Your_ tie! We found it in the Shrieking Shack! Why the hell did you go in there without me!?" The room got quiet, they all stared blankly at James for a moment.

"You twat! All this time you were so upset about this tie and instead of asking how and why that happened to his tie you are more concerned about Remus going into the Shack without you!? Get some priorities man!" yelled Sirius. Peter could be heard in the back of the room snickering to himself. Remus was quiet. He inspected the tie. He took his time too. He was stalling. _Ah hell what am I gonna tell them. That it isn't mine? Yeah there is some other R.J.L. Flying around Hogwarts. God Remus what have you gotten yourself into? _He tried to turn it around.

"Why were you in the Shrieking Shack?"

"Well durr because you weren't there to stop us!" said James, a bit worked up.

"Remus why was your tie in the shack? And in this condition? We saw bite marks there that are similar to the one on your arm." Sirius was as calm as ever. He walked over to the bed next to Remus', punching James in the back on the way, and sat down. "What happened?" his face full of concern for his friend. James had now calmed down about Remus being at the shack without him and his mind quickly started making up stories.

"Well isn't it obvious!? It was an assassination attempt! Remus is one of the top students at our school! Who wouldn't want to take him out!? I bet it was a Ravenclaw wasn't it? They are the smart house. Of course they would be jealous that someone not in their class is smarter than them! They knocked him out, dragged him to the shack and then threw him to the dogs they did! And poor Remus was conscious only long enough to defend himself and find a way out of the place. Only to drag himself back here and fall asleep with no memory of the incident! And you know what else? I betcha we are next! I mean come on the three of us are the most brilliant people here! I betcha there is a whole cult of Ravenclaws after us! We have to stick together from now on! No more leaving without someone else with you!"

Sirius walked over to James and without a word punched him right in the jaw, causing James to fall back onto a bed.

"What the fuck Sirius!?" yelled James as he held his jaw.

"You were being hysterical James. Let Remus tell us himself before we start plotting against the Ravenclaws" Sirius turned back to Remus who was rubbing the side of his face still trying to figure out what to do. "So Remus?"

Remus' mind started racing. He had no idea what to do. If he continued like this they would see that he was panicking and would not believe a word he said. He did the only thing that he could think to do.

"Maybe you guys should just leave the matter alone" he said in a harsh tone. He stood up, making his anger more well known. "If I wanted you to know what happened to me I would tell you but I'm not telling you therefore you should just forget it and go on with your daily lives!" He then threw the tie behind his shoulder and walked out of the room.

James, Sirius, and Peter were left staring at the tie.

"Something tells me I didn't get it right." said James bluntly. Sirius kicked his leg.

"Good god you are violent today Sirius!"

"Maybe if you thought before you spoke every now and then James, I wouldn't have to treat you as such"

"Look we need to focus on the situation at hand."

"Getting back at the Ravenclaws?" squeaked Peter

"Yes" said James proudly, while Sirius sternly said "No". Sirius glared at James.

"James for Pete's sake you are smarter than this!" James was silent. He couldn't help that he got carried away on silly thing so much. He nodded.

"So what do we do now then?"

"We need to get to the bottom of this. Remus isn't gonna talk. You know him. Stubborn as hell."

"Yeh." there was a pause. They were all trying to think of all the possibilities. At least James and Sirius were. Peter was off in his own little world. James racked his brain.

"This isn't the first time this has happened." said James quietly. Sirius looked up at him. "He goes out in the middle of the night some times. He always says his mum is ill. But he hasn't been out since last month. I remember because it was the night before a quidditch game and didn't know if he would make it back in time for the match" James took quidditch very seriously and always played best when he had his friends out in the audience. Therefore, he would be concerned about something like that.

"So what about it? He goes out every now and then."

"Yeah but why those days?" James began chewing on the inside of his lip. Sirius smiled and patted James on the back before standing up.

"Come on. We better see if Remus isn't too upset with us."

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Remus had made his way down to the lake to enjoy the day and get this all off of his mind. He sat in the cool grass, watching the giant squid make itself known every now and then. He was pretty sure that the guys were gonna lay off now. He had made a bit of a scene back there. He watched the ripples in the water, thinking about their reactions if they did find out about him. In reality they wouldn't care. But Remus' paranoia on the subject led him to believe that they wouldn't speak to him anymore. There was really no convincing him otherwise. He sighed and turned his thoughts back to watching the water.

At this moment James, Sirius and Peter had spied him sitting by the lake. James smiled. Sneaking up on people was one of his favorite things to do. He started to sneak up behind him but Sirius grabbed his shoulder. He shook his head. James pouted, but he understood. He had yelled in Remus' ear enough for one day. They certainly weren't going to just walk up to him though. James wouldn't stand for such a dull intro. So James took off before Sirius could grab him. He ran towards Remus as fast as he could. Once he got right behind him he leapt over his head and right into the lake.

"Ah hell this water is cold!" he yelled as he splashed towards the surface. Remus just looked down and shook his head laughing. Sometimes he really loved his friends. Just as James got back to the land and stood up he turned out and looked at the lake. "Never think it with the sun beating down on it all day" right then Sirius came up behind him and pushed him back into the water causing Peter to roar with laughter. James however did not like to have jokes played on him so easily. He decided to stay under the water for a while to mess with them. Sirius shook his head.

"James the water is really clear. I can see you not drowning. However you may want to get out of the water before you make yourself a nice squid friend" he called to him. James turned our quickly in the water to see the Giant Squid out and about. He quickly swam up and practically leaped out of the water. He laughed as he laid in the grass to dry off.

"Good day for a swim eh Remus?"

"James for someone as smart as you are you are a bloody fool sometimes" he laughed.

"Will ya look at that fellas? Remus CAN laugh!" James joked. Sirius sat down next to Remus and Peter took his seat next to Sirius.

"Look Remus, you can't blame us for being concerned. Now look at me Remus and be totally honest." Sirius paused. "Are the Ravenclaws after you?" Remus exploded with laughter, causing a chain reaction with the rest of the group.

"You guys are absolutely ridiculous. You know that? Now stop with that talk before we actually do have a house war." Remus scratched his arm where the bandage was.

"You can probably take that off now. The nurse here has pretty quick medicine." mumbled James, who was falling asleep in the sunlight. He of course spoke from much experience. Remus took off the bandages to find a completely healthy forearm below it.

"See now, good as new." smiled Sirius. "Now gents, now that James is good and wet, lets go back into the castle where he can slip and fall numerous times for our amusement." He said loudly enough to wake up James.

"What about my name?" he said sleepily.

"I said lets wake up James and go back into the castle."

"Oh right." Said James as he slowly got up and headed back towards the castle. The others followed.

And on the way back up, he did slip and fall numerous times, and the guys were amused.

Chapter 3: The Truth Is Revealed

Over the next three week the guys didn't speak much of the events that happened on that particular Saturday. Mostly because they didn't want Remus to crucify them for bringing it up again. But James was most definitely not going to forget the events. Oh no. He would remind Sirius of their little adventure in the shrieking shack and tell him what he planned on doing.

One day while eating lunch out on the school grounds the boys were using that time to study as well for the plethora of tests that was to be handed to them tomorrow for no reason in particular.

"Do you ever get the feeling that they plan this stuff?" asked James, who was laying upside down, legs propped up on a tree.

"No conspiracy theories right now James, please. We've got to move onto Divination" said Sirius with a laugh.

"We're going to have a test in there too? Bloody hell, I let Olivia borrow my text book. Let me go hunt it down. I'll be back" said Remus, who was a bit touchy this week. Once he was gone and out of site James looked at Sirius and Peter with a mischievous grin.

"I trust you boys haven't forgotten the events that took place a few weeks ago yes?" The two of them shook their heads. "Well then, whaddaya say next time he goes out we follow him?" his voice became more and more excited as he spoke.

"Now James that wouldn't be fair now would it?" said Sirius, trying to hide the fact that he thought that was a swell idea.

"Good then its settled. Last time he took off around nine. I remember because I was complaining how loud the clocks were at the school. So boys, make sure you look busy enough to not care that he is leaving." Sirius was going to argue it, but gave in. He wanted to see just as badly as James.

Oddly enough, it was only a few nights later when they were all hanging out in the common room that they had to put their plan into action. Sirius was writing a paper at a table in the corner, James was reading a book and Peter was pretending to read the newspaper. They were the only ones in the common room, making it seem like a cozy environment. Remus looked rather sleepy when he walked into the common room.

"Sorry fellas, mum is getting worse. She wants me to be there right now. She overreacts a lot." he said the end of the sentence with a laugh. "So I'll probably be back by morning. Don't worry about me" he smiled. He knew that the four of them didn't believe the sick mum thing, but it was his only story, and they would just have to deal with it.

Once he had been out of the room a few minutes they got up from their spaces. James ran up to his trunk, grabbed the invisibility cloak, and they were off following Remus.

They finally caught up with him, making sure they were quieter with every step. It was much easier when they got outside. They saw Remus wave to a professor that was making sure he got there on time and make his way to the Whomping Willow. Because they were taking their time sneaking past the professor they didn't quite understand it when they saw the tree freeze. This tree had been planted only a few years ago, and already it had beat the tar out of so many kids. It was odd to see it stand perfectly still while Remus was so close. But sure enough, it wasn't moving at all as Remus slipped away into the trunk. The boys ran as fast as they could to catch up before the tree started again. They were successful.

It was James' idea to take off the cloak as they entered the tunnel. He doubted that they would need it anymore. Peter was frightened though, and volunteered to carry it, which was exactly what James had wanted when he brought up the subject.

The tunnel was a long and cold one, and still they made no sound. At first anyway. But it was such a long tunnel and James was getting impatient. He started making comments on how this must be what it is like to be a baby in the womb. Peter would of laughed louder at the comment, but he was still too scared to make much noise.

Finally they saw a light. James crawled faster until finally he popped out the hole without giving a second thought to what was on the other side.

"BIRTH!" He screamed. This even made Sirius laugh out loud. As the came out of the hole they recognized the place as the Shrieking Shack, and over in the corner was Remus, looking at them in complete shock.

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING HERE!?" he shouted as he stood up. "You're not supposed to be here! GET OUT!"

"Remus what's going on-"

"LEAVE!!!!!" right as he said that he looked out the window. The moon was coming out. He looked back at his friends with a frightened expression growing on his face. He lipped 'get out' to them one last time before it happened.

Right before their eyes, James, Sirius, and Peter watched their best friend transform from a frightened teenager, to a large beast. He became twice his height, his fingers, arms, and torso were disproportional and long. James' stomach flipped. Sirius remained perfectly still as they saw Remus' yellow eyes looked down a large snout that ended in large sharp teeth.

They knew what had been going on. They knew why Remus snuck out once a month.

Remus Lupin, was without a doubt, a werewolf.

Peter darted back to the tunnel, grabbing the closest person to him. Unfortunate for him, James was the victim of Peter's defense mechanism. Sirius just stood there, looking into the eyes of his good friend.

"Remus?" he said quietly, as cool as he could sound. "Remus its Sirius, man. Come on now. You remember me." he said the last bit with a smile on his face. Remus just stared back at him. He understood. And for a brief moment, he relaxed.

"See now that wasn't very hard at all now was it?"

James had escaped Peter's grip after much kicking and scraping and popped back out of the hole to get Sirius. When he saw Sirius and Remus staring at each other, he panicked and called out.

"Sirius! Get over here quick!" Remus quickly snapped back into full fledged werewolf and began to snap at them Sirius ran to the tunnel and James pulled him in. All while Remus was tearing at them.

James didn't stop running until they were out of the tunnel and on the other side of the hill as far as they could get from school. Sirius sat down, there were scratches all over him.

"Shit." he said plainly as he saw them.

"Nah man its good. Its only the bite that passes the curse along. " said james as he reached for the invisibility cloak. He was going to ripp of material to cover up the scratches.

"Don't."

"Why not?"

"Because it will look worse if my hand is detached from my arm stupid."

"Oh right" said James. He started using bits of his own cloak.

"Did you see that?"

"What?"

"Before you got there and screamed, Remus understood me. I was talking to him, and he calmed down a bit. It was so weird."

"I think he was still changing at that point Sirius. I wouldn't know. Pissy Pants Peter had already swept me into the tunnel" He stared at Peter who was sitting away from them. He squeaked as he heard the insult hurled at him. There was a long period where no one said anything. The only sounds that were made was James' ripping fabric and the occasional grunt of pain from Sirius.

"Man, he is gonna be so pissed off tomorrow."

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Remus Lupin awoke in his bed on a sunny blue Sunday in November. He looked around the room to find all the other beds empty and unmade. He groaned and rolled over, trying to forget the events of the night before.

Unfortunately it wouldn't be that easy this time.

He closed his eyes, remembering everything. He remembered them popping into the shack. He remembered yelling at them. He shut his eyes a bit tighter. He remembered watching their faces as he changed. He remembered-

He remembered Sirius. He remembered being able to control himself. He remembered relaxing for the short period of time.

He remembered slashing and tearing at his best friends.

After they had left, he remembered being particularly hard on himself the rest of the night. Biting and slashing himself deeper than he ever had before.

This thought process was disturbed by James Potter, who walked into the room at that moment and flopped down on the bed next to Remus'.

"Well good morning starshine" he said sleepily. Remus quickly opened his eyes and rolled over. James raised an eyebrow and smiled. "Do you not liked being called starshine now?" he joked.

"Erm, no its fine" said Remus quietly. He was very confused.

Just then, Sirius Black poked his head around the door.

"James are you tormenting Remus without me?" he said coolly as he entered the room, following him was Peter Pettigrew. Sirius sat on the bed on the other side of Remus. Peter sat on the one next to that. Remus looked at Sirius' arms. They were still bandaged up. There was also 3 large scratch marks running from his right shoulder, down to the bottom of his torso on the left side. Remus followed all these marks with his eyes in absolute horror.

"Sirius, I am so s-" Sirius put his hand up, telling Remus to stop.

"Its fine."

Remus too a deep breath and looked at his friends. His paranoias flushed away.

"You guys aren't mad at me are you?"

"Hell yeah we're mad at you!" exclaimed James.

"James-" Sirius made a poor attempt at stopping him.

"You should of told us sooner you dolt! We could have already been practicing!"

"Practicing what?"

"Animals can't be hurt by werewolves, soooooo..." he stopped for a moment and pulled out a text book. "Sirius, Peter, and I are going to become animagi!"

The End

(until next time anyway)


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